It was a Pops Mensah-Bonsu coming out party. Big Pops scored a career-high 21 pts and 8 boards off of the bench for the Raps, as the Raps ended their 7-game losing skid against the Indy Pacers. The Raptors, sporting their Boston Celtic-St Paddy’s Day-esque jerseys, had a huge third quarter against the Pacers, outscoring Indy 37-19 including two nasty jams by Shawn Marion.

For the Pacers, Danny Granger made his return after missing 11 games, scoring 10 points in 18 minutes. Former Raptor, TJ Ford chipped in with 15 pts and blogger, Troy Murphy had 16 pts, 10 boards. The Pacers shot a miserable 37% from the floor and were outrebounded by the Raps, 55-38 and they also chucked up 31 threes, hitting only 9 of them. Pacers had a decent first half, getting a lead as large as 8 but fell apart in the third, as they had 6 of their 17 turnovers in this quarter.

On the Raps side of things, the Raps got double digit scoring from all of the Raps starters and my new favorite Raptor, Pops Mensah-Bonsu.

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Andrea Bargnani led the Raptors with 27 pts on 9-11 shooting, grabbed 9 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals and 1 block. Bosh had 15 pts and 13 boards. The Raps had this game in hand by the end of the third quarter leading 90-69 after three quarters.

Key Notes:

Jose Calderon had a double double with 15 pts & 12 assists

Toronto beat the Pacers in FG%, free throws, rebounds & turnovers

POB got some garbage time minutes with 4 pts, 3 boards in 6 minutes of play